her birth story

hello world. tim is out with faith for a run and sammy is sleeping - so i will do my best to write out a summary of the hours leading up to welcoming samantha into our arms.

friday afternoon - july 3rd - Grace, one of the midwives, stopped by the house to talk to us about induction. we still had some questions and wanted to talk through the different options with her. the option we felt the best about was breaking my water at home and hoping that would kick start labor. after checking my progress Grace said that if things stayed the same she would feel comfortable coming back later in the evening to break my water and get things going. (she had another mother in labor at the time but thought this mom would be done by 5).

during the afternoon i was totally filled with peace - an unexplainable sense of calm.

sure enough Grace called at 5 and was at our house by 7 pm. my water was broken about 7:15 and evidently i had a very durable sack. she had to try multiple times to break it. after my water was broken we found out the hospital we were set to go to was full and so Grace set out finding us a place to deliver. in the mean time Tim and I went for a walk and contractions began. and we prayed with the mosers - a sweet, special moment as Benjamin, Drew, Bekah, Tim and I stood in front of the house praying.

Grace told us we would go to Burnaby General - not too far away to have the baby. Calls went out to the parents and the latimers set out on the road to meet us at the hospital.

From 8-11 contractions felt hard and regular. I felt like I was making great progress. When I was checked at 11 I was a solid 4 cm dialated and totally effaced. But I was hoping for a bigger number...

Low point - felt very scared - wondering if i could really meet my goal of not using pain medicine. Grace talked me through the next few contactions and things got back on track.

From 11-2 I continued to have solid, strong, hard contractions. I found being very quiet and closing my eyes and concentrating on nothing else but relaxing was extremely helpful. Tim and my sister were with me the entire time and were INCREDIBLE!! I could not have done it without their support, words of truth and encouragement, and love.

At 2:00 am I was at 8 cm. Yeah!! About 2:45 I remember asking when I should start to push, as the urge was beginning to come. Grace said I would know because my body would want to do nothing else. And sure enough - about 3:00 I couldn't help but push.

Pushing was a different kind of challenge. I pushed for a little over 2 hours. Again, it took me a while to get the hang of it and find ways to make my work effective. When they could see her head begin to crown and told me she had black hair I felt a new sense of determination.

Samantha Jean Knipp was born at 5:09 am - July the 4th. Tim helped catch her. Immediately she was put on my chest, even before we checked to see if she was a boy or a girl. After a few minutes Danielle was asking, "isn't anyone going to see what it is?" I lifted her up and much to our surprise and delight - a girl.

I knew almost right away her name was Samantha. It just felt right and Tim totally agreed.

It took a while for the placenta to come out - again at this point Grace noted how tough the bag was... And I had some tearing and bleeding. So my poor parents had to wait until just after 7 to meet Sammy.

She was weighed and checked out and cleaned up. And around 9 am we moved to a recovery "room." Said room was not exactly ideal. It was a big room with 4 beds in it, divided by curtains. Thankfully we were at the end with the window, by the bathroom, and didn't have people walking by - but Tim and I both knew we wanted to make it home before the evening was done.

We had the sweetest nurse, Rosemary, while in recovery. She gave Sam her first bath and helped with the first few feedings. She was extremely encouraging and made the whole set up enjoyable.

Grace came back by around 6 pm to see how we were doing and fill out the discharge paperwork. We left after the nurse shift change - about 8:30. Just about 24 hours after we arrived. Now a family of four. Totally blown away by the Lord's care for us and overflowing with love for our daughter.

And now here we are. Tim and faith are back from their run. Sammy is sleeping next to me.

I am feeling better all the time. Samantha is a champ at eating and sleeping. She has hardly cried. And i can't stop staring at her.

Tomorrow we will leave the house for the first time. Sammy is tongue tied and so we will go to a specialist to talk about it and most likely have her tongue clipped. I think the poor thing would be tramatized to be my daughter and not be able to stick out her tongue for pictures :) The simple procedure should help with that.

The midwives have been great - in touch with us everyday. Nana Anne was up yesterday and spent the night and I imagine will be back soon. A huge help, as I am needing to not move around too much. We feel extremely supported.

Thank you so much for your prayers and comments!! They mean the world to me. What a crazy journey this has been?!

I don't really know how to close - but it seems fitting to say - The Lord is good - His love endures forever!